Monzo Aura credit card review: 1% auto-invested cashback

This is Monzo’s first cashback credit card — here’s how it works

Monzo has launched a brand-new cashback credit card coming in at a pretty hefty £15 per month. Here’s how the card works, how it differs from the existing Monzo Flex card and whether it’s worth it. 

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Benefits of Monzo Aura

1% uncapped cashback 

With Monzo Aura, you can earn 1% cashback on groceries and 0.5% cashback elsewhere. 

There’s no cap to the amount you can earn each month, unlike with most other cashback credit cards. 

Which groceries count for 1% cashback?

This was the first question I had after seeing you earn a higher rate at “top UK supermarkets”. 

By the looks of it, it depends on the merchant category code (MCC) — any retailer with the standard supermarket MCC will trigger the 1% cashback, while smaller corner shops might only earn 0.5%.

The supermarkets that’ll get you 1% cashback include:

• Tesco
• Sainsbury’s
• Asda
• Morrisons
• Aldi
• Lidl
• Waitrose
• Marks & Spencer
• Co-op
• Ocado

Auto-invested cashback

You can opt to auto-invest your cashback into Monzo investments, which you can invest in without the usual fee (although you do have to pay the fund management cost). 

You can choose to turn auto-investing off or on whenever you want. You can choose from one of Monzo’s ready-made funds or you can build your own portfolio. All of your investments have the fees waived, not just the cashback from Aura, so you can add money to your investments any time. 

We have a full review of Monzo’s investing product if you want to learn more about how it works.

Partner perks

Monzo has partnered with several companies to offer their subscriptions to Monzo Aura cardholders. 

If you already have any of these subscriptions, you can move your subscription to be included, but there’s no discount if you don’t want them (or get them via another membership)

These include:

• Apple TV. You’ll get an included membership for Apple TV, which is usually £9.99 per month. 
• Google AI Plus. This gets you a whole host of Google features and 2TB storage. The 400GB option is usually sold for £4.49 per month.
• Airport Lounge access and security fast track. This gets you two lounge passes and two fast tracks to get through security quicker. Lounge passes are usually £30+ a time and security fast passes come in at between £5 and £12 each time, depending on the airport. 

Metal card

One of the benefits of the card is that your credit card is a metal one. This is Monzo’s only metal card on offer now that Monzo Premium has been scrapped (as its replacement, Max, simply has a different coloured card). 

While this is a nice-to-have and makes you feel a little fancy when you whip it out at a restaurant, the majority of people will use their cards on their phones, so it’s a little obsolete.

Credit card features

On top of the benefits, you have all the usual stuff with your credit card. Other than the credit limit, the credit card elements of the Aura card are identical to the Monzo Flex card. 

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Credit limit

You can get a limit of up to £15,000 with the Monzo Aura card. For comparison, the Monzo Flex card only allows a limit of up to £10,000. 

Of course, this isn’t guaranteed. The limit you get will depend on your credit report. 

Interest rate

The interest rate on the Aura card is 29% (variable). You’ll get 0% if you pay in full. 

However, you can also use it in the same way as Monzo Flex, which means that you can split larger payments (over £100) over three months at 0%. You can do this with payments from up to two weeks earlier, too.

Overseas spending

Overseas spending with Monzo Flex is the same as spending at home, although you should still be careful to pay in the local currency and avoid cashpoints that charge a fee, as usual.

Purchase protection

Monzo Aura is a credit card, so you’ll get Section 75 protection on your purchases. 

We have a full guide on this protection, but it ultimately means that for any purchase over £100 where any of it was paid for on a credit card, both the retailer and credit card company are responsible if there’s a problem with the purchase. 

Monzo Aura Fees

The fee for the account is £15 per month. This gets you all of the features above. In comparison, Monzo’s Flex card is free. We’ve estimated that the partner benefits, if you wanted and used them all, would come to around £250 per year, not including the amount you could earn in cashback. The card costs £180 per year, so it could be worthwhile. 

Monzo Aura vs Monzo Flex

Monzo Flex is Monzo’s free credit card, but it offers no cashback or any of the subscriptions. Here’s how the card compares.

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How to get Monzo Aura

You need to have a Monzo current account in order to get Monzo Aura. Then, you’ll be able to sign up for it in the app. 

You might not have the option to sign up for Monzo Aura right now. Some Monzo customers will already be able to see it in their apps, but it’s being rolled out to everyone gradually. Monzo will let you know when you can apply. 

If you already have Flex and you’re eligible for Aura, you can switch over to it. You can’t have both at once, though. 

Monzo Aura reviews

As expected, Monzo Aura hasn’t been around long enough to get any reviews over at our sister site, Smart Money People. Monzo has received a rating of 4.85/5 from customers, and its existing credit card Flex has an impressive 4.9/5 from customers. 

Is Monzo Aura any good?

Zoe’s analysis

I’m a little disappointed by this new launch. Monzo’s products usually have good value for money, but this time, it feels it missed the mark a little. 

My first thought on this card is that it’s a little expensive — it might have extra benefits like Apple TV and Google AI Plus  included that bring the price up, but I feel like it’d be a better move and make people happier if Monzo ditched the included subscriptions and just charged £3 – £5 per month for the cashback card.  

That being said, the included subscriptions, airport lounge access and security fast passes are worth around £250 for the year, so you would technically be saving money if you already paid for these or needed these benefits at all.

Monzo customers have been asking for a cashback card ever since it launched cashback on the current account — mostly because people weren’t impressed that they had to activate the offers every time. It’s nice that the cashback is uncapped, as similar cards elsewhere tend to add a (fairly low) cap to the amount you can earn, bringing the value of the card down. Groceries are a huge expense every month, so earning 1% cashback on them could do fairly well, on top of 0.5% cashback on other purchases.

The best alternative cashback credit card without a monthly is the Lloyds Ultra Credit Card, which pays 1% uncapped cashback for the first year. 

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